


Warmed Over

by Crymore



Series: Raylin Palmer [9]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Deal With It, F/M, Protective Oliver, Raylin is awful at lying, and oliver is bad at reading his friends, no beta we die like men, oliver and Ray squabble like siblings, one-sided coldflash if you squint, this is mostly fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 03:56:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18541768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crymore/pseuds/Crymore
Summary: Raylin and Len are happily together.Now they just need to let people know. Which is harder than it should be.





	Warmed Over

**Author's Note:**

> Holy lord it's been so long since i've updated this series. Its coming to a close, so I hope you enjoy this part.
> 
> Check out my profile to see how to send requests and to check out my tumblr! Thanks for reading and be sure to judo and comment!

The ring was simple, exactly the kind that Raylin would wear. Something that went with everything and small enough to fit under her gloves, tastefully engraved with “R+L” under the setting. Silver, naturally (gold was always more Lisa’s thing) and circular sapphire. It wasn’t entirely traditional, but neither were Len and Ray. 

Every time Len caught sight of the ring on Raylin’s finger, he’d smile a little bit and it made Ray wanted to reach and pinch his cheek and kiss him. She often did if he was in within arm’s reach. Her assistant, Beverly, a nice young woman with flaming red hair and large brown eyes, simply eyed the ring and smiled widely and was exceptionally happy all day (Ray was reminded that Len was the one who picked Beverly from one of his “circles” and Ray hoped it was one of Len’s milder friends (Len told her something how Beverly was a friend of Lisa from college who was “a good kid at heart” which was Rogue for “did something really bad and got in trouble but has a morally grey compass and a metal backbone and she gained my respect by dick kicking one of my guy, probably Mark”)). Raylin still hadn’t seen Team Flash or Team Arrow since Len had popped the question. 

Until Oliver decided to pop by unexpectedly at her PalmerTech building. 

Beverly looked up from her desk and looked a little grey with worry, and awkwardly walked the millionaire into Ray’s office. 

“Um, Dr. Palmer? A Mr. Queen? Is here to see you?”

Beverly always phrases everything like a question. She also held everyone who wasn’t Ray in a low, peer-like regard, even if that person was millionaire Oliver Queen. 

Ray really likes Beverly.

Oliver was dressed casually, and eyed the shorter woman oddly as Beverly quickly departed, basically slamming that door in her haste. 

“She’s… nice?”

Ray laughed. “She’s a big strange, but she gets the work done and she’s efficient.”

The ring on Raylin’s finger felt a ton heavier now, and within a sickening second she realized that this was the first time she’s seen Oliver since 2042, and young Oliver January of last year. It made her left hand stray upwards, her finger burying themselves in her hair. It wasn't that she didn’t want Oliver to know, she just didn’t want him to know now. 

Oliver was a good friend, and highly highly over protective of those he allowed close to him. And Oliver made it no secret he wasn’t fond of anyone who was a thief. Hell, Oliver name dropped Leonard on several occasions, even before he ever had the cold gun. The thought of Oliver finding out about all of… this, like this, was not a great idea.

“What, uh, what can I do you for, Ollie?” she stammered out.

Oliver chuckled, an invisible weight being lifted off his shoulders. He always seemed in much better spirits with his friends. “Well, first things first,” He sat easily into the chair on the other side of Ray’s desk, hardly used saved for the few times Beverly sat their to “girl talk” during her break (mostly Bev talking about what she and Lisa got up to back in the day (mostly illegal things)). “You can tell me what time travel’s like.”

Ray smiled widely, breathing a sigh of relief. “Well, you’re awfully depressing as an old man.”

Oliver smiled and Ray regaled her adventures on the waverider. Ray was carefully left out anything she didn’t tell Team Flash, no reason to give them an excuse to gossip about her or to think she was hiding anything. She excluded telling Oliver anything about her romance with Leonard, but did tell him that she, Len, and Mick formed a kinship and have been inseparable since they came back.

Oliver didn’t seem mad that she became friends with a pair of villains, if anything he seemed amused. “Only you could befriend criminals, Ray.” he chuckled.

“To their credit, I had to wear them down.” Ray laughed. “Took a while.”

Oliver’s laughter petered out, and he eyed his old friend. “I haven’t seen Atom on Central City news. Retired, or?”

“Well, I just thought that if someone were to make a miraculous revival from the dead and a hero was to appear days after people might think something hinky would be going on.” by the end of her sentence, Raylin had to cover her mouth with her right hand to hide her barely contained smile. 

Oliver gave her a deadpan look. “I’m never gonna live that down from you, am I.”

“You could’ve waited a week or something.”

He rolled his eyes and slouched further into the chair instead of arguing. “Are you ever gonna get back to it?”

In all honesty, Raylin hadn’t thought much of returning to heroing since Christmas. Once she fixed her suit when she and her two criminals returned, she hadn’t even put it on for testing or adjustments or anything. There was so many other things to do, like making the new cold gun and then she came back to life and had to restart her company and then there were her other inventions and helping the world through Palmer Technologies was better than through the Atom. 

But heroing isn’t exactly something you can quit. Once you got the taste for it, you couldn’t just stop. 

“Maybe.” She answered honestly. “Once everything’s settled down and Palmer Tech isn’t in the news everyday. And it’s not like I’ll deny Barry or you help if you ask for it.”

“Any reason you never came home?” he asked solemnly.

It took a half second for Raylin to understand the question. She thought “I am home. I’m right where I’m meant to be.” but then she remembered that she wasn’t in Starling anymore. She’s in a whole different state, six hours by car away from the city where Raylin Palmer buried the seeds of her success and where it bloomed. Where she started her business, where she became a hero, where she gained and lost everything and gained it again before leaving with Rip Hunter and his suicide mission from the future. 

But Central was where Len is. Len has roots so deep in this city, Ray was surprised he parted with it to begin with to join the Legends. Central is where Len grew up, this city shaped him into what he is. Len differs from Ray in many ways; Ray took her tragedies and let them go, almost alway forgetting how to deal with loss each time she encountered it. Len steeled himself with his loss, kept those lesson close to his chest and utilized them when needed. He made no secret of his pain. 

Len’s home was Central, and Ray’s home was Len. 

Ray sighed and a tight smile wormed itself onto her face. “There’s a lot I left behind in Star.” she said slowly, breaking away from looking at Oliver in favor of the picture of Len she kept on her desk (it was an awful photo, taken in the fog with a polaroid Ray had bought and there was a sun glare any of Len’s features were washed out, but Len was smiling when she took the photo that one early morning, and she would never get rid of it). “And I think I leave it there.”

Starling was where Raylin met Anna, and Felicity. It’s where for the first time in a long time she was her own person, not David Palmer’s kid, not Sydney’s sister, not the nameless overambitious student who blew teachers away; she was Raylin. But Starling held more bad memories than good. Maybe that’s why it was so easy to leave with Rip.

“Central gives me the breathing room I need, anyway.” She said while cracking her neck. Desk chairs are never as ergonomic as they advertise. “The second I step foot in Starling, every reporter and investor would be on me like white on rice, and being drowned in people is not something I like.”

Oliver leveled her with a look that said he knew she was telling the truth but not telling everything, but said nothing. Just the very judgemental glare.

The smile on her face turned from tense to scared, but she still smiled. “So how’s the Arrow thing going?”

Oliver’s expression didn’t change as he answered. “Fine. What are you hiding.”

“Ha ha, come on Oliver, you know I’m awful at lying!”

“Raylin-” Oliver’s phone ringing blessfully stopped the conversation. When he turned around to answer, Ray deflated into her chair with a sigh. 

Oliver argued with whoever was on the phone, Raylin could tell because he was using his “im being polite because if I threaten you, you’ll sue,” voice. He eventually ended the call with a cold farwell and sighed heavily. 

Ray smirked at Oliver’s displeasure. There’s something about your friends’ minor inconveniences that’s funny.

“You staying in Central tonight?” she asked, trying to tamper down the mirth in her face.

Oliver threw her a playfully angry face. “Yeah, figured I’d remind Barry who the original hero is.” he said smugly.

Raylin raised an eyebrow (she’d been practicing in the mirror to do it the way Len does) and smiled coyly. “Batman’s in town? Geez, think you can get me a connect?”

Oliver’s playful anger turned into indigence. “We are not having this argument again!” 

\---

Mick plopped his feet onto the coffee table, and was smacked on the back of the head for it.

“Shit, boss, what the hell.”

“No feet on the coffee table, you weren’t raised in a barn.”

Mick scoffed but complied as Len walked into the small kitchen.

“So, you finally grew a pair and popped the question?”

Len rolled his eyes, pulling out two Pabst from the fridge. “Yeah, sure.”

The channels on the tv were changing rapidly, until Mick settled on a report of a forest fire. “And since you haven’t came to me with a sudden, stupid heist plan that would definitely get us arrested, I’m assuming she said yes.”

Len pressed a freezing cold beer can on the back of Mick’s neck and chuckled darkly as Mick jumped away, spewing profanities.

“You could’ve just said yes!”

“And you could’ve been less of a dick. But yeah.” Len walked around to the front of the couch and sat down. “She said yes.”

Mick grunted but didn’t respond otherwise. They didn’t to “feelings.” Len knew Mick approved of Raylin, if he didn’t, he would have told Len as bluntly as he could. And since Mick actually gave Len a shovel talk concerning Raylin when Len came back from the dead, Len believes it’s safe to say Mick approves.

And Lisa liked her. It was actually Lisa that helped picked out the ring, then punched him in the arm and threatened him with turning him into a gold statue if he did anything to the scientist. Len has no idea when Lisa was swayed to Ray’s side, considering she ignored the other’s existence for the first few weeks, but their kinship at least eased Len’s worry a bit. He had been nervous if Lisa didn’t approve of Raylin.

“Hm. What her folks say?”

The cold-loving thief chuckle and sipped his beer. “Well, her dad’s dead and her brother and she aren’t on speaking terms. That just leaves her mother, who we’re visiting tonight.”

Mick grunted in acknowledgement. The pyro took a long sip of his beer and smacked his lips together before speaking. “You gonna tell our crimson comet?”

Len felt the smirk pull at his lips as he took another sip of the cheap beer. “Oh, I actually have a plan for that.”

“Will your old lady kill you for it?”

“Her exact words were ‘take liberties with it, I know how you are.’”

Mick laugh rumbled in his chest and and poured from his mouth like thunder. “You gotta plan?”

Len joined in the laughing as he finished off his beer. “Oh, I got something all right.”

\---

Barry knew Leonard Snart was back in town. He knew that he had played hero and came back to his beloved city. And he knew that eventually, Len would don his parka and gun and Barry would have to don his suit and the never ending fight between Scarlet and Cold would continue.

He just didn’t think it would take Len this long.

If what Raylin told Cisco and Caitlin was right, they touched down in mid-November, and now its early February. Len usually goes in half-cocked when it comes to Barry, with nothing but a concept and a trick up his sleeve to teach Barry a lesson before disappearing for months on end to only pop up and make Barry face another moral dilemma.

So when Cisco told Barry the cold gun detector went off after nearly a year of silence, Barry was almost giddy to fight Leonard Snart again. Even if Oliver was tagging along.

“It’s the science museum of 12th street.” Cisco chimed cheerfully in his ear. Barry looked to Oliver to make sure that the archer could hear the location over the wind. Oliver nodded and steered off on his motorcycle to take a short cut. 

Barry wondered why Len chose the science museum. Nothing exactly of value there, well, not for normal people. The museum is rich with memories for Barry, all the trips there with his family and his friends. 

The museum was quiet when Barry and Oliver stalked in together. Oliver immediately took the high ground by parkouring up in the decorative rafters. (Barry sometimes wonder if Oliver is showing off or if the flips are actually needed).

“Hey Bar, should we call Ray?” Caitlin mused in his ear piece. “I mean, I haven’t seen her out in ages.”

“Go ahead and call.” Oliver confirmed, vetoing Barry. “Snart and her are apparently friends now, maybe she can guilt trip him into submission.”

Barry smothered a laugh as he quickly sped deeper into the museum, following the sudden disruption of sound in the belly of the museum.

Low and behold, in the large opening outside the “Molecular Structure” exhibit, stood Leonard Snart, dressed in black, donning his parka like a cape and twirling his gun-

That wasn’t his gun. Not the one Cisco designed. This one was slimmer, stouter, and kind of looked purple/grey in the flickering lights going off around the villain.

He seemed to be defacing the mural of a double helix DNA strand, using the stream of the ice blast (since when was it so controlled?). It looked like…..?

“Is that an atom symbol?” Barry asked.

Snart stopped shooting and turned on his heels to greet the speedster.

The dark tinted goggles obscured his eyes, but the familiar leering smile was already pulled across the thief’s face. 

“Hello, Scarlet.”he drawled, tilting his head sideways (Snart always reminded Barry of a crow, the head-tilting, the stealing, the death omens-)

“And here I thought your time with the Legends made you second guess your stealing nature.” Barry snarked back as he and the villain circuses each other, the hero briefly noticing Oliver set up in the ceiling, bow and arrow poised in case of danger. 

Snart’s smirk remained cemented on his face as he answered. “Haven’t stolen anything yet, speedy, just breaking and entering, which is why I was recruited for the Legends in the first place.”

The speedster smiled. The banter was familiar and comfortable, and it doesn’t seem like Snart was going to force him to go through another life lesson the painful way. “So what’s with the, uh….” he gestured lazily to the frost covered wall. “...art restoration?”

Len regarded his masterpiece with blatant pride. “You like it? I was gonna have you go on a scavenger hunt to tell you, but I figured you’d use your peanut gallery to cheat.”

Barry’s eye flicker to Oliver in the rafters. “...Tell me, what?”

Len holstered the cold gun, pushing the goggles down so the thief can look the hero in the eye.

“Well, I’ve got good news, Scarlet.” He opened his arms wide, ever the dramatic fuck that he is. “I’m going to become an honest man!”

The silence that followed was… deafening. Not even Cisco had a sarcastic comeback. 

“Like, you’re giving up villainy?” Barry asked, incredulous. 

Len sighed heavily, trying too hard to sound disappointed. “No, Scarlet, not like that. I’m talking about the old ball and chain.” he stressed, his usual nasally accent thicker with annoyance. 

“You’re giving yourself up?”

“Oh my god, Scarlet, aren’t you supposed to be a genius?” he admonishes. 

“Holy shit, Bar.” Cisco gasped loudly in his ear, Barry tilted his head down to pay attention to his tech support. “I think Snart is getting hitched.”

“What?!” the speedster shouted, turning to look the thief in the eye again. “You’re getting married?!”

Len threw his hands up in exasperation. “Now he gets it.”

Barry felt angry. He felt confused, and a little betrayed. He thought he finally knew Leonard Snart inside and out, he saw the exposed heart of the criminal when he killed his father, saw the goodness when he warned him that christmas season before he left. Barry though he knew all there was to know about Leonard, this was… a shock. 

“Who the hell are marrying?!” Barry shouted. Cisco and Caitlin were having an equally loud break down it seems, with Cisco frantically typing and muttering something about a paper trail for the ring and Caitlin loudly cursing like a sailor.

Len took a step and regarded his frosty work with an eyebrow raised. “I dunno, Bartholomew, who did I just spend the last few months on a spaceship with? Who did I come back with?” He waved his hand and gestured to the atom symbol on the wall, vapors coming off in waves. “I’ll give you three guesses, Flash.”

The realization set in, and Barry floundered. “R-raylin?” Barry all but screeched. “You’re getting married to Raylin?! Palmer?!”

Len shrugged the same moment an arrow stabbed itself by his foot. Len jumped back, “What the fuck-”

Oliver dropped down from the rafters and quickly approached Leonard, but Barry had joined the rest of Team Flash in yelling in confusion and he paced around the room at super speed, just repeating the Atom’s name in various octaves and volume.

The speedster was vaguely aware that Oliver and Leonard where fighting, their green and blue forms close together and the animosity coming off of them was suffocating. But all Barry could focus on was that Snart was BACK and getting MARRIED to the biggest nerd barry ever knew! What the hell even happened on that mission? What happened between up-tight, rule follower Raylin Carla Palmer and the devious criminal Leonard Snart? Did leonard seduce Ray or did Ray seduce Len? ‘Oh my god.’ Barry thought. ‘Their kids are going to be evil super-geniuses. They’re going to take over the world with big brown eyes and back alley deals. We’re doomed as a society.’

“Uh, did I miss the fight?”

Barry’s neck snapped to the timid voice. Raylin stood in her Atom suit (It looked a little different than before, it had more dings and scratches now). Oliver and Leonard stopped their arguing to regard the heroine themselves. 

“Did I miss something?”

Oliver grabbed the hood of Leonard’s parka the same time when Barry threw his arm out to gesture to the criminal.

“You’re marrying him?!” Barry and Oliver questioned aggressively and simultaneously. 

Ray, beneath the visor, looked like a deer in the headlights, finally surveying the scene before her. Oliver and Leonard both roughed up, Barry visibly distressed, the large frozen symbol on the wall.

With a sigh, Ray smoothly removed her helmet and tucked it under her arm, smoothing her hair down with her free hand before looking at the three men in front of her. She looked pointedly at Captain Cold with an apologetic face. “I forgot to tell you Oliver was visiting. Sorry.” 

Len smiled smally at her in acceptance of the apology. “Well, plans go off the rails, Bambi.” He responded kindly. His voice was soft in a way that Barry had never heard it before, it was jarring. He’s not sure he’s ever heard Snart speak without his drawl, and Barry always thought the over done Missourian accent was an act.

“Bambi?” Oliver seethed.

Raylin scoffed and moved more into the room. “Oh, please, Oliver, you’ve heard of pet names before.”

Oliver threw the thief away from him and stalked to Raylin. 

Barry had seen what happens when people approach Raylin threateningly. She looks worried and backs away and tries to defuse the situation before it got to her. BUt Raylin didn’t do that as Oliver advanced to her. If anything, SHE looked more annoyed. Her stance went lax and she raised a single eyebrow (hauntingly the way Leonard does) as her mouth pulled into a pout.

“He’s a criminal!” Oliver yells, throwing an arm back to gesture to Leonard, who followed only halfway before stopping to watch the scene unfold.

Ray leaned forward, getting in Oliver’s face. “You don’t know anything about him.” she seethed. Barry didn’t know Raylin could seeth.

Someone grabbing his should shocked Barry to stillness. He hadn’t realized he was vibrating in nervousness. Len leveled him with a concern look (since could he look concern?!) and squeezed his shoulder tighter, ignoring the argument by them.

When the volume from Ray and Oliver rose, Len finally looked over. 

“Ray.” he called, tapping his wrist after releasing Barry’s shoulder, which was beginning to shake again with the tremors of nervousness.

Oliver’s and Ray’s argument ending with the snaps of their jaw, neither looking at the other.

Ray sighed again before looking at the archer. “I will be happy to talk about this later, but right now I kind of have to go and tell my mother I’m dating a known criminal.”

Green Arrow finally tore his eyes off the Atom and looked to Captain Cold, but rather than rage or contempt in Oliver’s eyes, he saw a cross between curiosity and amusement.

“You.” he said. “Are going to meet Sandy Palmer?”

Len gave a fraction of a nod, eyeing the vigilante stonily.

Oliver’s face broke into a smile as he laughed. The sudden jubilance seemed to off put the others in the room.

“... Barry, I think Oliver’s lost it.” Caitlin chirped in one ear.

“Done in by Cold and Atom dating. Man.” Cisco sighed mournfully in the other.

Oliver leaned over and wheezed. Raylin, now very concerned, dropped her helmet to grasp Oliver’s shoulders to steady him. Even Len took a half-step forward on concern. 

“Oooooh my god.” The voice alternator made every cackle and word sound demonic. “Oh my god I’m sorry, I’m so sorry it’s just-” another creepy laugh disturbed the air and the listeners as Oliver straightened up. “Sandra Palmer’s crazy.”

Raylin immediately smack the back of the blond’s head. “My mother is not crazy!”

Barry stifled a laugh as Len looked on amused.

“She owns five cats! And a snake!”

“She took Fluffy in after I died, don’t put that on her!”

The archer looked to thief and speedster as he laughed again. “Fluffy, for reference, is the pet snake Ray had in college.” 

“You know what Snart? That’s punishment enough, an evening with Sandy Palmer.”

As Raylin and Oliver devolve into another spat, a little harsher after the last jibe, Len chuckled and sighed, running a hand over his face and muttering about snakes and Raylin’s weird habits.

Barry just stood dumbfounded. 

Leonard Snart and Raylin Palmer met on the Waverider, they fell in love, they dated, they’re getting married, he’s meeting her mother.

Barry felt a strange amalgamation of joy and sorrow.

\---

Sandra “Sandy” Palmer did, in fact, own five cats and a snake.

She also had nine locks on the front door. And barred windows.

And she had “Singing in the Rain” playing on loop on her tv.

So Oliver Queen was right. Sandy Palmer was crazy. Not that Len would give him the satisfaction of knowing he was right.


End file.
